MADISON - A liberal group sued the state Department of Justice under Wisconsin's open records law this week for its refusal to release nearly 2,000 emails related to Attorney General Brad Schimel's attempt to find Obamacare unconstitutional.

The Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy in August sought emails and other records produced in 2018 belonging to Schimel and his aides regarding Obamacare, which is formally known as the Affordable Care Act.

Two weeks after the center sought the records, the Department of Justice's Paul Ferguson told the group the request was "excessively burdensome and not reasonably limited as to subject matter and time."

The agency found 1,940 emails that were possibly responsive to the request and determined it would take too much time to review them and black out information that should not be made public, Ferguson wrote.